This book focuses on a key period in Latin American history, the transition from colonial status, via the revolutions for independence, to national organization. The essays provide in-depth studies of eighteenth-century society, the colonial state, and the roots of independence in Spanish America. The relation of Spanish America to the age of democratic revolution and the reaction of the Church to revolutionary change are newly defined, and leadership of Simon Bolivar is subject to particular scrutiny. National organization saw the emergence of new political leaders, the caudillos , and the marginalization of many people who sought relief in popular religion and millenarian movements.

'...one of the best Latin American history primers...a most enjoyable experience for the dedicated Latin Americanist and a fine piece of scholarship.' - History: Reviews of New Books

'...a useful volume for anyone looking for syntheses of large issues of colonial Latin America and its trials...' - Jeremy Adelman, The Historian